The Tale of God's Banquet
by lotus head
Summary: Refurbished!Zodiac Tale. Based off of the Furuba version and tradional. [Even the moon quietly watched over the beings who did not look human.]


**The Tale of God's Banquet**

Once a long time ago, there was a man. For as long as he could remember he had always been by himself. If he climbed down the mountain, he knew that he would meet people, but he chose instead to be by himself.

The one who is at the top normally is alone. Having the strength of a thousand men. Having the lives of a thousand men. That man having a thousand memories, he knew that he was different from other people.

The man was afraid of other people. He was afraid of getting hurt. While he had so many powers, he was afraid of this self that he knew was so different from the world.

And so to him a cat came one day. It was sudden and strange, because no one ever came to visit him. The cat bowed his head and said. "I have been following you for some time."

"You have a most unusual aura; I can't help but be drawn to you. I realize I am but a stray cat but won't you please let me stay by your side? Please 'God'." Since then, as he said, the cat never left the man's side. He never left for a moment and that made God so very happy that a thought came to him. "Perhaps, I can get along with them if it was a being other than human. If it is with beings that have had similar experiences, then we can have a fun banquet." And so, God wrote out many invitations.

To get to the mountain, the twelve animals that were invited had to cross a wide stream.

The first one invited was the rat, because the rat and the cat were very good friends. The rat was fast, but very, very small, so he was worried about getting to the banquet. He told his good friend, the ox, and the ox offered to carry him on his back. The rat was very happy; because up high on the ox's back he couldn't get swept away by the current. So they reached God's banquet together.

After the ox, came the tiger, panting away while explaining to the emperor just how difficult it was to cross the river with the heavy currents pushing it downstream all the time. But with powerful strength, he made his way to shore and was named the third animal in the zodiac.

Suddenly, from a distance came a thumping sound and out popped the rabbit. He explained how he crossed the river, by jumping from one stone to another. Halfway through, it almost lost the race but the rabbit was lucky enough to grab hold of a floating log that washed him to shore. For that, it became the fourth animal.

In fifth, was the gallant dragon, flying and belching fire into the air. Of course God was deeply curious as to why a strong and flying creature such as the dragon should fail to reach first. The mighty dragon explained that he had to stop and make rain to help all the people and creatures of the earth, therefore he was held back a little. Then on his way to the finish line, he saw a little helpless rabbit clinging on to a log so he did a good deed and gave a puff of breath to the poor creature so that the rabbit could land on the shore. God was very pleased with the actions of the dragon, and God welcomed the dragon into the banquet.

As soon as he had done so, a galloping sound was heard and the horse appeared. Hidden on the horse's hoof was the snake, whose sudden appearance gave the horse a fright and made the horse fall back.

Not long after that, a little distance away, the ram, monkey and rooster came to the shore. These three had helped each other to get to where they are. The rooster spotted a raft, and took the other two animals with it. Together, the ram and the monkey cleared the weeds, tugged and pulled and finally got the raft to the shore. Because of their combined efforts, the Emperor was very pleased and promptly let them all into the banquet.

The eleventh guest to arrive was the dog. His explanation for being late although he was supposed to be the best swimmer amongst the rest was that he needed a good bath after a long spell, and the fresh water from the river was too big a temptation. For that, he almost didn't make it to finish line. Just as the emperor was about to call it a day, an oink and squeal was heard from a little pig. The term "lazy pig" is due here as the pig got hungry during the race, promptly stopped for a feast then fell asleep. After the nap, the pig continued the race and was named the very last to arrive.

All thirteen animals were there, so they started a banquet and enjoyed themselves, and the God was so pleased with the plan that the cat had helped him come up with. Following that, the thirteen animals and God had a banquet each night in the moonlight. Singing and dancing, and laughing with each other.

At the banquet, for the first time, God laughed out loud. Even the moon quietly watched over the beings who did not look human. However, after some time the cat collapsed. He was ill and there was nothing they could do. Every one of them cried. Every one of them realized eventually, everyone would die. The banquet would end. No matter how fun it was. No matter how much you love them. Eventually. Then God cast one spell. He drew a circle in the water with his finger. He had the cat take a sip of water. Then he turned to everyone else and said. "Let us make our friendship last for eternity. Even when we die, let us be bound by our friendship for eternity. No matter how many times we die, no matter how many times we are reborn, again, in the same way no matter how many times, let us have another banquet. Everyone getting along for all of time. Let us be in eternal bliss."

Everyone nodded in agreement and the rat took the first sip. Then was the ox, the tiger, then the rabbit. In their turn the water was divided equally. At the end, when the last drop was gone, the cat began to gasp. "God, God, why did you make me drink that? God, I do not want eternity. I do not want eternal bliss."

Those were unthinkable words to say. To God and all the other animals it was rejecting words. Everyone was sad to hear them and they all turned against the cat. Even so, that cat said, "God, God, even though you are frightened, let us accept that all things end. Even though it is sad, let us accept that life ends."

"God, even though it was just for a short time, I was happy being by your side. If I were to die, be reborn and meet you again, the next time rather than in the moonlight I want to see you smile in the sunlight. The next time I meet you, I want to see you laughing surrounded with people." And for the last time the cat raised his tail and died peacefully.

But none of the animals cared about the cat anymore. Because everyone felt they had been betrayed by the cat.

The rat felt so bad at seeing the hurt face of God, and angry because the cat, his friend, had died and hurt God so much, and so he made a promise.

"God, so it won't hurt you so badly, I'll promise you something. I'll stay with you for as long as I can." God was relieved, and he thanked the rat for being so kind.

After that, one by one, they all died. In the end, even the rat died and so God was alone once more.

And eventually, even the day came that God died too. However, he was not afraid because his promise to everyone supported him. "Again. We will have a banquet again. Once again many times, always unchanging. No matter how alone I am right now."

"On the other side of that promise everyone is waiting for me."

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**T.I.B.E.-sway- **completed 2.9.07

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I hope you enjoyed that! In case it seems familiar to you and you're wondering why- part of it's the same story that was in the manga. I edited and rewrote the main story, and I merged it with the traditional Zodiac story after more editing and rewriting to make it fit. I also added some original stuff. But, in fact, that the rat and the cat used to be friends is from the traditional version! I was suprised, actually.

Hope you enjoyed it, at least a little bit. -- Please comment/criticize/compliment!

BTW- to anyone here who's read my story 'Bond' and are waiting for chapter two--- It's coming! Eventually. It depresses me to read the Yuki manga chapters, so it takes a long time to get anything done. D:


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